I saw a lot of regard and respect from him and that hasn’t changed – Virat Kohli on Babar Azam
Former India skipper Virat Kohli said he first met Babar Azam during the 2019 World Cup and said the Pakistan star always treated him with “regard and respect” and that has not changed despite his growing in build.
Asia Cup will begin on August 27 in UAE. The group stage high-octane clash between Pakistan and India will be played on August 28 in Dubai. The fans are eagerly waiting for the clash while all eyes will be on Babar Azam’s and Virat Kohli’s forms.
Virat Kohli said he first met Babar during the 2019 World Cup and said the Pakistan star always treated him with “regard and respect” and that has not changed despite his growing in build.
Kohli cheered Babar as “the top batsman in the world across formats” currently and also said that he is the kind of player world cricket needs.
“The first interaction I had with him was the 2019 World Cup after the game in Manchester. He and Imad (Wasim). Imad I have known since Under-19 cricket, we have played against each other and Imad said Babar wanted to have a chat,”
Kohli said in a chat with Star Sports.
“We sat down and spoke about the game. I saw a lot of regard and respect from him and that hasn’t changed even though he is probably the top batsman in the world right now across formats, performing so consistently,”
the former India skipper said.
“And rightly so, he has amazing talent and I have always enjoyed watching him play. So that hasn’t changed. He is performing now and he is coming into his own, but I don’t see his attitude or his approach change towards me, which is a very good sign of someone who is very grounded in the foundations of his upbringing,”
Kohli went on to say.
“His cricketing foundations as well are very solid. So these kinds of players, these kinds of characters go a long way and inspire a lot of people. And I see that happening with him as well,”
he said.
“I congratulated him yesterday on how he’s been playing and told him how amazing to watch it is and I wish him all the best,”
Kohli revealed.
“And he deserves all of this. And eventually, you need to have players like him to keep world cricket exciting,”
he said.
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.
Standby: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar.
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir, Mohammad Hasnain, Hasan Ali.